In The Drink

EPI­TAPH / COOK­ING VINYL

The de­but solo al­bum from one of pop­rock’s most inim­itable voices is short, sweet and, in true Justin Court­ney Pierre style, ridicu­lously fun. The ex­Mo­tion City Sound­track front­man dives deep into his nos­tal­gic in­flu­ences, hints of ev­ery­thing from Weezer to Pave­ment shin­ing through in this ‘90s power­pop fever dream. And though fans of MCS will find that Pierre still plays to a lot of his old strengths, there’s a new­found loose­ness to the way he throws youth­ful hooks, gur­gling basslines and lash­ings of crumbly dis­tor­tion at the wall; like he’s not try­ing as hard to im­press us, but by proxy, im­press­ing us more than those last few pre­hia­tus records did by a long stretch. All that’s needed now are some hy­per­ac­tive live shows to match!